Helping Students Think about Industrial Physics Careers

John Rumble

Following our successful pizza lunch at the 2103 APS meeting in Baltimore on thinking about and preparing for physics careers in industry, FIAP has started working with APS Sections to hold similar events across the country. In mid-October FIAP partnered with the Texas APS Section at their annual meeting held at the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB).

John Rumble, current Chair-elect, and John Rodriguez of Texas Instruments shared with about 50 students from the Texas area about their experiences in career building in industry and how that relates to the new generation getting started in theirs. We would especially like to thank Dr. Rodriguez for sharing his experiences from growing up in San Antonio though his present career, and would like to thank the financial support of Texas Instruments for helping make this event possible. We also extend thanks to Heather Galloway of Texas State University and Karen Martirosyan of UTB for generously working with FIAP towards the success of this event.

The most recent FIAP effort was in mid-November at the APS Southeast Section meeting at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green Kentucky. There were two separate events. Brad Conrad of Appalachian State University organized an Early Career Physicist with five talks about different aspects of a career in physics. John Rumble facilitated a session featuring talks by leaders at user facilities located in the Southeast, with the aim of introducing industrial physicists to accessible, high-end, research facilities located near-by. A selected number of graduate students held a special poster session targeting the commercial sector on the relevancy of their graduate work to industry.

FIAP is very interested in working with other APS Sections to help them reach out to finishing students about non-academic careers in physics. Please contact John Rumble (jumbleusa@earthlink.net) or Mark Bernius (mtbernius@yahoo.com) if you would like to discuss an industrially-targeted event at your Sectional meeting. Even better, let us know if you wish be a speaker at one of these sessions and share your experiences as an industrial physicist.

Opinions expressed represent the views of the individual authors and not the American Physical Society or authors’ employers.